...our deep freeze is being taken over by breastmilk. No, seriously, it is! With hunting season around the corner and the first batch of what I pumped going to "expire" soon (aka 6 months from when I originally pumped it), I decided to look into milk donation. I totally and 100% feel this was a God thing.
I'd been deciding whether or not I wanted to do it for a couple reasons. 1. I'm a hoarder. I didn't want to give any away because what if I needed it. However, at this point, I have easily over 1000+ oz frozen, enough to feed AR every feeding of every day for 2 months and some. 2. I really didn't know much about it or where to donate it. As I saw that I was running out of space, I decided to look into it. I researched online, I called the hospital and I asked Kristal, my go-to gal on all things breastfeeding. I couldn't find much online except creeper stories. The hospital told me the closest milk donation center was in Indiana and I'd have to ship it there in dry ice (way more work than I wanted to put forth). Then Kristal told me to check out the Facebook Group Human Milk 4 Human Babies (that's the main group but then you can type in your state's name to find local). Basically, you post whether you are looking or donating and work out the logistics with the other person.
I talked to Matt to make sure he was okay with me donating and he said, as long as I did it at a public place and didn't take AR with me then he was okay with it. So I visited the site Thursday night and I read through ALL the posts back to July debating on what to do. Then right before bed, I decided I'd post and see what happens. The next morning, I woke up with 2 messages from people interested. And this is where, I feel it was a God thing...
Lady #1
She is has a 4 month old and has returned to work so her supply is decreasing. She lives one town over, not super far away but I rarely get down there. Just so happens that I'm working a half day and headed there to pick up SIL's Christmas present and it happens to be her day off work as well! I tell her I'll bring her 50 oz. She asked if I wanted to be paid for the milk. I told her if she wanted to give me a couple bucks for the bags that would be great (after all that's really the only expense I'm out). I'm getting ready to leave and I pull out ten 5-oz bags and you can't even tell I've taken anything out of the freezer so I go ahead and pull out another 12 bags. I meet up with her and give her 110 oz of milk. She hands me a thank you card and we go on our ways. I run my errands, get home and open the card. She gave me $60 in cash!?! Totally not what I was expecting (or wanting, just wanted to get rid of some milk!). I emailed her and told her that was way too much and she replied that it was worth it to not have to stress for the next month about feeding her baby. I let her know to contact me when she needed more and don't give me anything!
Lady #2
She lives about 45 minutes away...in the same small town that my sister does. God thing: My sister just happened to be coming to my house on Sunday and was able to take some back to her. She was sweet and gave me an entire box of freezer bags. My sister told her I was a milk-producing machine to which she replied well, if she has any more, I'd be happy to take it. I think I'll text her any time I go to visit her and take her some if I have it.
Lady #3
Saturday morning, I check my FB and I have another email from a lady who lives 2 towns north of us. She said she would be willing to come to me so I told her I worked on Saturday (just one town away from her) and she could meet me there. Perfect!
So there you have my milk donation stories. So far, they've all been very positive experiences and as I said, God totally intervened that I posted at the right time that I could help these 3 ladies and their babies out. However, even after giving away 200+ oz, our freezer is STILL full, just a little bit more organized but it's a good problem to have!
5 comments :
So cool that you were able to help out so many people! :-) Josh & I were at Best Buy this weekend & they had a deep freezer for super cheap. I tried to convince him to buy it, you know, because one day we're going to need it for breast milk. I'm PRETTY sure he was a bit caught off guard by that one. He'd rather put chicken in it!
This is outstanding! I'm going to have to check this out because I can remember with Coen that I had an oversupply too! So, I couldn't only imagine that it would happen again!
I love that it's a thing that you set up and you don't have to go through a crazy amount of tests to be approved.
I also think this is a great thing for yourself to give such nutrients to another child that needs it just as much as your child! You're doing great things and I'm so in love with it!
This just makes me so happy! Go you!
Wow that is so awesome! If I had an oversupply, I'd love to do the same. As a receiver, I'm not sure I'm quite as comfortable with getting a stranger's milk, but I still love that this exists and that you're helping moms and their babies!
that place in Indiana just opened a drop off location at one of the St. Louis hospitals. I just read about it the other day. It just opened. I will go back and see if I can find the info. I wish I had a reason for you to give it to me but not so much.
That's awesome! I had so much milk (even feeding 3 babies) that once I started to wean it took over a month to go through & I still had some left over. By that time the boys didn't like it anymore so I had to dump out like 4 bags (I think). Now I wish I would have kept pumping (great way to lose weight!) & just donate it to hospitals.
Way to go in doing something that is so awesome & helpful! Those babies that you helped got the best food on earth!
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